The Wright Brothers: Would Their Patent Survive Today’s Patent Law Rigors? Doubtful

The Wright Brothers: Would Their Patent Survive Today’s Patent Law Rigors? DoubtfulCharles Shifley“The patentees, Orville and Wilbur Wright, were the first men to actually fly!” So begins an appellate brief in perhaps Orville and Wilbur Wright’s most famous patent infringement case, Wright Co. v. Herring-Curtiss Co., 211 F. 645 (2nd. Cir. 1914). Imagine getting to write a line “the first men to … fly!” exclamation point included, as the first line of a brief for clients.On the strength of the facts, and excellence of legal work, the court in the Wright case affirmed as valid the central U.S. patent of the Wrights, declared the Wrights to be pioneers in flight, and resolved that airplane wing ailerons and a tail rudder were part of their invention. Creative legal defenses, such as that a rudder of the Curtiss flying machine was not an infringement because it was only used sporadically, were put to rest memorably: e.g., “a machine…